New & Cool Architecture / The Mirage by Kjellgren Kaminsky

June 15, 2009 | New & Cool Architecture | by Casper Johansson |

In 2006, Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky won the International Competition for their vision for a new dance hall in Falsterbo, Sweden. Now the building, known as the Mirage, is to be inaugurated. The design placed considerable emphasis on creating ’spaces with extraordinary acoustic qualities. A custom made damping wall was designed in collaboration with an acoustic expert, consisting of a black acoustic felt covered by white wooden boards of various dimensions’. Read more

New Music / Luke Jackson’s debut album, And Then Some

January 27, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

In the Spring of 2006, a seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Luke Jackson and Magnus Börjeson. Jackson had long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and the two songwriters finally met in Paris where Börjeson was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend, Jackson had accepted an invitation to record in Sweden, which he took up in January 2008. He set to work in the studio with Magnus on bass and Christoffer’s Brainpool bandmate Jens Jansson on drums. Upon his return to London, he sent the rough mixes of the songs to renowned London-based string arranger Robert Kirby (who has orchestrated works by Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, and Elton John). Kirby loved the songs and offered to write orchestrations for the album and accompany Jackson to Sweden to conduct the necessary recording sessions with nine players from Malmö’s Opera Orchestra. It is the collision of these two worlds which makes his album, And Then Some, so compelling. Densely layered guitars and vocal harmonies fuse with sweeping string lines, none of which ever draw the ear too far from what lies at the heart of Jackson’s music.

New & Cool Architecture / Sweden’s Ice Hotel

January 25, 2009 | New & Cool Architecture | by Casper Johansson |

This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night. Read more

New Products / Playsam toys

January 24, 2009 | New Products | by Tristan Eaton |

When it comes to toys, these guys really know what they’re doing. Playsam is one of my favorite toy companies. They’re based in Sweden and they make extremely polished, minimal toys for children. Their designs are classic and extremely expensive, but well worth it. When I have kids, I’ll spoil them with these.

New Music / Tallest Man on Earth

January 6, 2009 | New Music | by Francis Andrews |

Tallest Man on Earth, the rasping Swedish folk singer-songwriter and one of the unsung heroes of 2008, recently recorded the beautiful song A Field of Birds, a nice adjunct to his summer album release, Shallow Grave. His sound is so loose and unmanicured, and carries a poignancy reminiscent of the rusty, early Bob Dylan.

New Music / Pain

October 29, 2008 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Metal icon Peter Tägtgren has produced the harshest and most underground music of the European metal scene — Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Celtic Frost, among many others. His own band, Hypocrisy, is one of the most revered melodic death metal bands in the world. Read more

New Illustration / Alexandra Falagara

October 28, 2008 | New Illustration | by Kate Barnett |

Preferring to focus on the content of her pictures rather than the style is a refreshingly honest approach to design. It’s worked out brilliantly for Swedish illustrator Alexandra Falagaras, whose works are easy to spot with their sharp graphic style. My favourite piece of hers is a contribution to The Book of Dreams, a project where kids’ dreams are collected then illustrated by artists.

New Music / Diablo Swing Orchestra

August 20, 2008 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Diablo Swing Orchestra are a Swedish band straight out of a Tom Waits nightmare. They sound exactly like their name suggests, making dirty, raucous swing, updated with some punky power chords, but the operatic Swedish vocals and nearly death-metal growls separate the band from the swing revivalists of the late ’90s. Definitely not the kind of band one would expect coming out of a Scandinavian country. But hell, there’s no rule that says creepers and fuzzy dice don’t go well with Viking helmets.

New Art / Keith Shore exhibiting in Malmo

August 13, 2008 | New Art | by Zolton |

Keith Shore has his first solo show, ‘Jersey Knit’, coming up in Malmo, Sweden starting September 6th. ‘They are a few in a large series of paintings based off of photographs I’ve taken in my old neighbourhood of Lambertville, New Jersey’, he says. Read more

New Music / Lifelover

August 3, 2008 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Anyone who thinks black metal is too rigid and narrow a genre to have room for innovation would do well to check out Lifelover, a Swedish band that defies every convention of black metal while still remaining miraculously kvlt. The sextet wafts between languid, hallucinatory grooves that channel Iggy Pop and latter-day Cure to unhinged freak-outs that sound as if they’re emanating from the deepest, coldest forests of Norway.

New Illustration / Jenny Morsell sharpens her pencils

August 2, 2008 | New Illustration | by Zolton |

We checked in with Swedish illustrator Jenny Mortsell recently and asked her whether her work space was strictly conducive to productivity, or inspiration, or both? ‘The biggest pro is that it is a method for me to get dressed before noon, as opposed to when I used to work from home. Even though it is one of the few privileges you have as a freelancer to get properly dressed whenever you want, it’s nice to look presentable to other people once in a while. It’s practical in the way that I have my scanner, printer, and cinema display, which I need for work, there, and inspiring in the sense that I share it with some fantastic people: Sara Teleman, Erica Jacobsson, Bo Lundberg, Otto Degerman, Jens Magnusson, Jan Cafourek, Johan Lindh and Sabina Wroblewski-Gustrin. Because of them, it is also a much more organized place than I could ever manage to maintain by myself, which helps if you want to get work done instead of cleaning up after your latest experiments’. Read more

New Fashion / Paula Hagerskans

May 12, 2008 | New Fashion | by Stacey Howard |

Swedish designer Paula Hagerskans has a cool masculine-edge to her female fashion lines. But it’s her attention to detail that really blows my mind. Her perfectly tailored jackets, along with her flat dress shoes, make dressing up fun, comfortable and classy. When asked what she keeps in mind while designing, Hagerskans responds, ‘Bohemic music lovers, humor, graphic design and the female body’.

New Fashion / MTWTFSS Weekday

May 2, 2008 | New Fashion | by Carolyn Dempsey |

Cheap Monday are arguably one of the biggest revolutions in denim since Levi’s. They’re pretty much the uniform second skin for the music totin’, cons scuffin’ youth of today. Read more

New Music / The Tough Alliance dig Dr Dre

May 1, 2008 | New Music | by Francis Andrews |

We wrote about hot Swedish electro duo The Tough Alliance a little while back, so we thought it was time we had a chat with Eric Berglund, one half of the group. Read more

New Music / Peter Morén

April 14, 2008 | New Music | by Zolton |

Peter Morén, one third of the Swedish group — Peter, Bjorn and John — that gave us some of 2006’s catchiest moments with their collection of eminently whistlable tunes, has a wonderful debut solo album out called The Last Tycoon. Read more